Ding Ding Ding… I have an announcement

Ding Ding Ding… I have an announcement

Ding- *breaks champagne glass with butter knife*

*crowd turns around*

“Hello! Yes, may I have your attention? Have any of you got a second to talk about Rhetorical Terms, our modern day English savior?”

I know I am hilarious, actually. But no time for that, we shall take a moment to speak about the importance of using specific rhetorical terms within an essay. WE ARE RUNNING OUT OF TIME PEOPLE! So pretty much, if you start talking about the terms within your essay, the audience may not know what you are talking about. (Literally happens to me all the time, but not with essays, just me trying to socialize in general.) So to avoid that, I am giving you the great gift of examples of rhetorical terms you could use, as your savior. They go as follows: piecemeal, open-ended closure, diction, compare and contrast, and rhetorical gazes. Piecemeal is the way the author gathers any information from different sources and compiles it into a story or essay they want to present. Open-ended closure is when the author leaves the end of the story open, so that they can go back and have a place to start back from; (SEQUAL SAY WHAT!?), they leave a cliff hanger; so John Green can write a sequel to Paper Towns already. Diction is the author’s choice of words; using “the man approached the puppy” instead of “the man came up to the dog.” This gives the author the opportunity to say what he wants to convey, persuade, or grab and hold the attention of the audience. Compare and contrast is used by the author to show the similarities and differences that one can find within an idea or an image. Finally the author can use rhetorical gazes to appeal to the reader’s emotion, and pride. When using images, the author can make the audience relate to what is in front of them, they connect with the images that are described within the essay.

*Feeling guilty for comparing my awesomeness to others*

Compare my god-like writing to the peasants?
As you wish professor.

Okay that was a joke! I promise. Although I am a queen, I am not the only one. We are all little queens. *Insert gender joke here*. Or for those who get easily offended "Kings".

But for real. I am comparing my blog post that was written about "blog and effect" (Okay CAUSE and Effect but that joke is still funny admit it) to another student in my class. Here's a spoiler: it's a guy. That narrows it down to like 5 people. (jk here is his blog )

So any who, this person wrote their loveliness into a blog about cause and effect (blog 4A) and I am now here to compare and contrast the two.

Similarities:

Same subject
we both say fancy words like "narrative" and "essay"
Both explain the relative summarized definition of cause and effect
Both includes the chain thing Mr. Marchant put on the board

Differences:
Mine is funny as heck! and sassy
His is very to-the-point like this is an assignment or something and we aren't just blogging for fun!
Length
Content
Tone
Vibe

Either way these are both fantastic and I love them.

Rule #56: The only time to compare yo'self to others is in english

Okay team! Lets talking about comparing things (not yourself to others because that is a no-no we are all beautiful humans)! 

I’m talkin', Compare and Contrast in visual rhetoric.

You all know what comparing and contrasting is, I have faith you do. But let me break it down real quick to remind you. In comparing and contrasting, one would take anything really, could be a topic, event, picture, song, dog, cat, lizard... anything!! Anyways these two "somethings" you're comparing have a common subject, or quality that makes them similar enough to compare. As all things in life, when you have black you have white, when you have sad you have happy, hot and cold, and with comparing, you have the "sames" and the "differents". So of course, we spoke about this in class. The last assignment was comparing and contrasting two videos of the classic kindergarten song and story "The Itsy Bitsy Spider". So of course I compared them. 

Similarities:

Same song

Same spider creature (I hate spiders)

Fun looky-loo animations

Same story

Same sad struggle of water washing that little guy down the drain

BUT (remember when you have hot you have cold and when you have similarities you have -all together now- *all says in unison* "diiifferrrenncesss." Yes team! Correct. Differences here we go:

Differences:

Different beats

different pictures

different vibes

rock and roll and one was a rap

So pretty much when you're using Compare and Contrast in writing, there are basically two different ways to do this thing. The first way is Subject to Subject; looking at the different subjects separately and then at the end, come back and note the differences and similarities of the two (compare and contrast). The next method is the Point to Point; noting the differences and similarities by picking apart the subjects and comparing and contrasting their points right after each other simultaneously. 

Oh say can you see, rhetorical gazes?

By the dawns early light, I wake up and put my shoes on, grab my backpack and head out to learn about english on Tuesdays. I am thankful for this opportunity. 

Although early, I am still able to retain information enough to explain it all you to. I live for my blog followers. I probably have one on this blog. And it is probably my professor (shout out to Mr. Marchant!)

I'll make this quick. Rhetorical Gazes!

Rhetorical gazes are a tool that writers use to direct their audience to feel, act upon or think a certain way. Tools! (Love ‘em!) Try applying this to your next draft and see if it changes the way your audience perceives your piece of literature. Adding pictures always helps readers understand and comprehend what you are trying to write about or prove. People like pictures. It wakes up part of their brain that wouldn’t have been awoken if they just read black text. The different types of  rhetorical gazes are categorized into a couple different branches; familial, travel, consumer, or national.  Familial gazes are normally pictures of family, friends, pets, your home; anything really that creates feelings of nostalgia. You remember your childhood home and you have emotional connections with it better than someone who found the old picture at a thrift store 20 years after the house was sold. From here on out things get less personal. Travel gazes, for example, are gazes used in travel magazines, or even on facebook. It is normally used to make you want to travel, to get out there, to feel the sun shining in the picture and to jump into that baby blue water and let it consume you in its 80 degree entirety. National gazes are used to create a pride; a feeling of patriotism. Sometimes though, politicians use it for (duh) politics! In class today we discussed how someone who doesn’t want Hilary Clinton in office will post a very ugly picture of her to paint her as an ugly person, or a person you do not want in office.

The picture I chose to show you I categorize as familial. I’m sure whoever’s sons are on this tractor are hard workers and they make their family proud. Even the kids themselves can look back on this and laugh, remembering the summers they spent waking up early to help dad harvest all day until dusk, where they-- tired, dirty and humble-- ran into the house to get supper from mom.  

Essays so basic they need ugg boots and a coffee

Yes you heard me. Basic essays! #basic #ugg #coffee #starbucks #messybun

Okay apologies on the hashtags, or as my dad calls them, hashbrowns.
As my senior year AP English teacher says (shout out to Mrs. Johnson!), do not make an essay basic by limiting it to 5 paragraphs.

What you should include is the basic essentials, which creates the skeleton of the essay.

Example:

• Introduction paragraph- this paragraph should include your topic sentence (the hook- aye aye captain) a supporting sentence, and then the thesis, If your teacher did not DRILL into your head the importance of a thesis, I will. IT IS IMPORTANT! It's like the spinal cord of your essay! Your essay needs a specific topic and thesis so we know what you're even talking about. 

• Body- This can be 3 paragraphs with 3 supporting topics in each of them, (don't be basic), or it can have 7, 8, 15. Whatever floats your boat and gets your point across the river (see what I did there.)

• Conclusion- Wrap up your whole essay by restating your thesis in summary (not word for word) and then make sure you drill your point as you tie up all the ends of your wonderful weave of an essay. 

Blog and Effect... wait

CAUSE and Effect, my bad. All of this blogging has me thinking about just one thing; yes, blogging.

So as children, we all knew cause and effect. Our mothers taught us, our teachers taught us, and life in general taught us. I mean these were as simple and as complex as life is.
Mom:
"If you go in the pool, you won't get dessert tonight."
What did I do? I went in the pool.
Teacher:
"If you talk one more time, I'm sending you outside."
What did I do? Whispered one last thing to my partner. At least it was sunny outside.
Life:
"If you sneak out tonight, you will pay for it in the morning."
What did I do? Spent the whole day hiding from my mom praying she wouldn't find out, or notice the bags under my eyes.


So yes, we already know the concept of cause and effect. But we can use this as a tool in writing, and if used effectively, it can make the story. I mean if you layer the cause and effect scenes on top of each other, you can create a nail biting, real-life story that makes sense to your readers, and is also easy to connect with.
I mean if you just say the cat got stuck in a tree and the fireman got it down, I'm yawning already. But if you say the cat got stuck in the tree so the girl got married, that makes no sense either. You need layers.
The cat got stuck in the tree
the fireman got it down
the owner of the cat was so happy
that she introduced her daughter to the fireman
who happened to be the same age as her daughter
and they had the same senior year english class together.
they also both love to go out to dinner
so whatta ya know, they go out
they fall in love
he proposes
the girl gets married.

Layers people! Cause and effect aren't just what their title names them. They can both be causes of something and also be effects of something. You just have to lay out the timeline right.